New Years in Amsterdam

about the best description for New Years in Amsterdam is loud. which one would expect from the thousands of people and hundreds of fireworks.

i greeted the New Year with the ´family´ here. we spent the evening playing games and chatting. and then at 11:30, we ended the old year with a chapel service. and hurried immediately afterward to the kitchen to get the champagne ready in the last few minutes before the countdown. after wishes of Happy New Year (gelukkig nieuwe jaar) with kisses and handshakes, we hurried outside for fireworks.

in anticipation of New Years, people have been practicing setting off fireworks for the last couple of days. so i was slightly prepared for the noise involved.

when we went outside for the fireworks, it was to join hundreds of others in the neighbourhood to set off our own fireworks. the light was phenomenally bright and the noise a bit deafening. but there is great joy in getting to watch people i know wave back and forth a blinding light, to watch a string of firecrackers go off where we usually park the van, and to see fireworks in the sky in every different direction.

and then we went out the back door to see the neighbours across the street/canal set off a whole series of fireworks from a barge. i was so close, i had to look directly up to see them. when they had finished we went for a walk in the neighbourhood to wish a few others Happy New Year and check out the excitement in Dam Square.

then clean-up and bedtime. and amidst the noise of at least a thousand people in the neighbourhood – and fireworks still going off at regular intervals, i fell asleep. which proves again that i really can sleep through anything 